Pirates have long captured the popular imagination. However, it has been only recently that scholars (mainly historians) have tried to separate fact from fiction and taken a pragmatic view of piracy. Archaeology has been remarkably silent on this topic. However, the discovery of the wreck of Blackbeard’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, has raised the question with archaeologists as to “what is a pirate and how would you recognize a pirate site”? The answers are not as apparent as one would expect, especially from an archaeological perspective. Focusing on the QAR, I will examine several pirate ships and lairs, to shed further light on the lives of these remarkable scoundrels.

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Tyler Jo Smith is Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology with the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia. She holds her degrees from Merton College, Oxford (D....